"Stelios Petrakis, musician and luthier, displays all his love for the music of Crete. Based around the emblematic instrument, the lyra fiddle, it is characterized by refined strings, expressive singing and dance rhythms that resonate throughout the eastern Mediterranean."

"These sublime poetic texts dating from the 14th century have the classic themes of courtly love, nostalgia and absence. Performed on the qanbus luth and copper plate percussion, the music of The Singing of Sanaa is the quintessence of Yemenite traditional music."

"Flora Molton arrived at the blues by way of her religious faith. But with Molton, faith was always more important than music. Born in 1908, she began preaching at the age of seventeen, and didn't take up the guitar until 1943. Molton supported herself playing guitar in the streets of Washington, DC. Eventually, she began playing in folk clubs and toured Europe. This album features eighteen tracks of gospel songs, accompanied by Molton's capable slide guitar."

"Abduvali Abdurashidov, master of the sato (bowed tanbur), belongs to a great line of Tajik art music performers. As refined, sinuous lines of the sato blend with singing, dotar lute and occasional doyra percussion, the elegance of this music evokes an ancient courtly art." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"Griot music accompanied on the delicate dambararou lute, ritual songs of therapeutic possession accompanied on the gogué fiddle to the rhythm of gon and karou drums, and a boldly dynamic women's choir -- different aspects of Bariba traditional music from the descendants of a kingdom established in the 15th century, and long reputed for its fierce resistance to exterior domination." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"This release celebrates the Bektashi ceremony of the djem, which features semah sacred dancing and sung poetry accompanied on the saz lute. The djem is both a liturgy commemorating the founding myths of the Bektashi faith and a fraternal agape (ritual feast) uniting an entire community. Music, listened to with great intensity, is a link between all that permeates this entire ritual. In these recordings from the Turkish region of Antalya, two 'choirs' are present: one, conducted by Müzaffer Görgülü, recorded in 2004; the other, conducted by Süleyman Can, in the 'mother' house (the house of the ancestral djem) in 2011." Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"The recordings on this double album are the result of field-trips into a region of South India called the Nilgiri Hills (the 'Blue Mountains") which is home to the Kota, Toda, Mele-Nadu Irula, and Alu-Kurumba people, among others. These indigenous groups create music on instruments like the conical, belled 'shawm,' the bamboo trumpet and the idioglottal clarinet, with singing in a variety of techniques that covers a vast aesthetic field, from the immediately 'Indian' accents of Kota bhajan, to Toda singing which seems to come from another world altogether." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"This disc focuses on the unique music of the Colombian gaitas ensemble -- flutes accompanied by alegre, llamador, and tambora drums. It displays the genre at its most lively and dynamic, preserving its original expressiveness and revitalizing it with its own sensibility. The style is a direct descendant of the interaction of Colombia's three major ethnic groups: whites, blacks and Indians." Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"The Okinawa archipelago (formerly the independent kingdom of Ryukyu) is situated at a crossroads of cultural influences (Japan, China and South East Asia). Blending these elements, Okinawa developed an original musical style, demonstrated here with a collection of classical and courtly songs accompanied on the sanshin lute. Performers include National Living Treasure Choichi Terukina, as well as Shinjin Kise and Masaya Yamauchi." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"With intimate links to everyday and spiritual contexts alike (through the orthodox liturgy but also through epic ballads, lullabies, songs for entertainment, weddings and work etc.), the sophistical polyphony of Georgia - performed here with passion and invention by the Ensemble Basiani -- evokes a distant musical past even as it surprises by its modernity." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"Bèlè tradition evokes distant Africa with its mix of song, dance and drums. Once discouraged, this form of artistic expression has now become an emblem of Martinique. With a contemporary flair, Edmond Mondésir pays homage to masters of the genre including Benoît Rastocle and Félix Casérus." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"This set features both vocal intensity and religious fervor from the two main Sufi brotherhoods of Senegal (the Tijâniyya and the Murîdiyya, founded respectively in the 18th and 19th centuries). Featured selections include hymns and poems to the glory of Allah." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging.

"The Jongmyo Jeryeak refers to a combination of vocal and instrumental music and dances performed once a year at the Jongmyo royal shrine. For about 600 years, this solemn and majestic ritual music has been performed in honor of the royal ancestors of the Korean Joseon dynasty." Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"In Corsica, the voice reigns supreme -- from the polyphonic intensity of paghjella and the poetic invention of chjama erispondi, to lullabies, laments and funeral orations. However, the island also has a rich and varied instrumental repertoire. It includes music for the pifana pastorale flute, pirula flute, the powerful cialamedda, the cetera and more recently adopted instruments like the violin, guitar, mandolin and accordion." Oversized hardbound packaging with a 113-page booklet in English and French.

"Songs, flutes, bagpipes, guimbards, fiddles and cimbaloms display the diversity of the music from Walachia, Hornacko and Kopanice. This collection of lullabies and Carnival, work, wedding, shepherd and bandit music is an invitation to listen to musical traditions as they are still performed today." Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"Ocora's album of Russian music for wind instruments features Boris Efremov leading the Moscow Chorus of Horn Players and the Folk Ensemble Ulitsa in a fascinating survey of the genre. The basic focus of their activity is the revival of Russian traditions from the 18th and 19th centuries, especially those of wind instruments -- such as horn, overtone flute, panpipes, vertical flute, shepherds' trumpet -- and violion or balalaika." Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"Recorded in Benin in 1958, 1969 and in 1996-1999, the pieces on this album and the various photographs (since before 1950 to 2009) exemplify the richness and the diversity of Yoruba singing and musical instruments. Through ritual and entertainment music, voices of memory rise unchanged for many decades." Oversized hardbound packaging with a 96-page booklet including full-color photographs and notes in English and French.

"The three singers of Insingizi perform traditional Ndebele songs, warrior chants, as well as political and revolutionary songs from Zimbabwe. The group says, 'The insingizi is a rain bird. The female has a different song to the male, so when they sing together, they sound like a chorus. We like to think our own sound is as beautiful as these birds.'" Oversized hardbound packaging with booklet.

"The popularity of Cape Verdean music has grown exponentially thanks to great artists such as Cesaria Evora. Through the vocals of Nha Mita Pereira, a legend of batuque tradition, the very soul of Cape Verde is exposed."

"A collection of music of the Baganda people, Uganda's main ethnic group features selections including dances, religious invocations and secular songs." 2011 repress of OCORA 560161-- this has the same content as that release, except with a different barcode.

"From the most performed mode to the rarest, from dastgâh-e shur to dastgâh-e Râst, on classical poems by Sa'di and Hafèz, Mozafar Shafi i and the Râst Ensemble introduce listeners to a music which will appear new but at the same time ancient by its roots, where the intimate association of vocal art with poetry is brought to its highest level. Shafi i, a protégé of the great Mohammed Reza Shajarian, has assembled a superb cast of young Iranian musicians to perform this fascinating repertoire." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging with a 24-page booklet with French and English liner notes.

"Ocora's disc by Zen Hôyô features a monastic rite of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. Its alternation of the recitation of sûtras and prayers with instrumental sequences is done in the monk's search for sûnyatâ (vacuity)." Another release housed in Ocora's lavish oversized hardbound packaging with a 20-page booklet with French and English liner notes; a stunning document.

"For centuries, the interaction between Greek, Turkish and many ethnic groups gave rise, in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the great cities of Asia Minor, to a musical culture which could be qualified as a perfect example of intercultural integration. The Oriental style called smyrnaika, played on violin, oud, qanun and santoor had a strong influence on rebetiko, today acknowledged as Greece's national music. This recording by the Greek group En Chordais illustrates to perfection this musical tradition of Asia Minor." Deluxe oversized hardbound packaging with a 28-page booklet with French and English liner notes.